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PYPETOOLS is the new workbench added to the Flamingo set.

As the name may suggest, it mainly deals with tubes, elbows, flanges and similar. It's a
direct continuation of the FrameTools job but there is also a fundamental difference: it does
not work (only) on Arch's Structure objects but it works on customized classes of objects
(i.e. "Pipe", "Elbow" and "Flange": more on this later) defined inside pipeFeatures.py.
That's the reason of the "y".
This don't mean that you won't be able to intersect beams with the command
"extendTheTubes2intersection()", as well, or move any object that has a circular edge with
"rotateTheTubeEdge()" (you CAN actually do that) but for my purposes and future
development I preferred to define my own simplified "FeaturePython" objects.

So the workflow of PYPETOOLS reduces to two point:

1. Create with Sketch or Draft workbenches the basic route of the piping or with Part
and PartDesign create an auxiliary solid whose edges will be the axis of it.
2. With PypeTools workbench insert piping elements and modify them as needed.

Now, for example it's worth to recall the tutorial of

FRAMETOOLS where we have drawn a kind of
firefighting stair. At the end it didn't look so safe
because I got the feeling that something was
missing... the handrails!

In this tutorial we are going to draw them with the

aid of the new workbench; it is not the real task it
is designed for but actually handrails are made
by structural pipe, so here we go.
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First we need to add some lines to the sketches of

the ramp of stairs. Here to the right there's a picture
of one of them with the relevant dimensions: so let's
add to it the sketch of the handrail in order to get the
outline as below.

Obviously to lay down a tube

over the axes we had just
sketched it's necessary to use
the command "Insert a tube", that you can
execute pressing on the button of the
toolbar or selecting the command from the
menu.
Doing that, opens the dialog to the left.
This is designed in order to have on its left
the list of available sizes for the tube and
to the right the list of available "schedula"
numbers. Changing the selection in the
right list will update pipes Outside
Diameters and Thicknesses in the left list.
Actually these list are taken from a .csv file
inside the ./tables folder of the module and
you can create your own tables of pipes,
just following some simple rules.
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• The files must be comma-separated-values type, with semicolon as delimiter.

• The names of the file must start with the kind of piping object ("Pipe" in this case)
followed by an underscore and the name of it's pressure-rating class, that will be
shown in the right list of the dialog above.
• The file must contain the table of dimensions of tubes, being the first row of the
table the names of properties as defined in the relevant class in pipeFeatures.py:
read the automatic documentation of classes with the menu path Help ->
Automatic Python documentation...

It's simpler to do rather than say: just copy one of the

existing files in that folder, rename it and change values:
next time you'll open the dialog you will find in it your
brand new class of pipes.

Also, it's clear, you can modify the dimensions of pipes

directly from the properties tab after you created it,
without need that its dimensions are present in one of the
.csv files.

So select DN50 / SCH-STD and select the two vertical

and the top diagonal lines of the sketch; press the "Insert"
button. Repeat the operation for the lower diagonal line
but with DN32 size. This is what you get.

To complete briefly the description of this dialog:

• The "Apply" button will change the dimension of selected tubes in the viewport to
that of the selected size in the left list.
• The "Reverse" button will change the orientation of the pipe by 180°, in case it's
needed in some case: for example when you insert a tube over a circular edge
(read automatic documentation for all options!).

To insert the elbow elements

where the pipes intersect with
an angle, use the "Insert an
elbow" command: that pop-ups the dialog
to the right, which is very similar to that of
"Insert a pipe".
In fact it works quite in the same way:
there are two list for the sizes and
classes of elbows, linked to the file in the
./tables folder; there is the "Insert" and
"Apply" button, but the "Reverse" button
is replaced with an handy "Trim/Extend"
that can be used to adjust pipe
terminations when they are not trimmed
automatically by the "Insert" command.
For example this happens when you
modify the bending radius after you
created the curve.
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So, select first the two pipes that form the lower intersection like below and press insert.
You see that an elbow is created at the intersection of tubes and these latter are trimmed
to the edges of the elbow.
Notice also that you don't need to select one size from the list of the dialog because the
command, if at least one pipe is selected, seeks the list to find the same size of the pipe.

We make the same for the upper intersection but let's consider that for estethic reason we
want to increase the bending radius. As said above, we can make this from the properties
tab and then trim the tubes to the new edges with the dedicated button of the dialog.
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So, here we have our first handrail placed

on the side of one of the ramps of stairs. At
this point it's worth to create a group in the
model tree and drag in there all the tubes
we created up to now; as said in the other
tutorial this is not mandatory but it helps to
keep the file clean and readable.

After that we can use our old

friend from FRAMETOOLS
workbench: the shiftTheBeam
command.
With that it's possible to move and copy the
handrail to the other beams of ramps, using
the dimensions of the model to measure
the distance of translation. See
"tutorialFrame.pdf" for details.

At the end the drawing will look like at side.

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You can draw similarly the other handrails but I want to show an alternative method of
doing that.
To draw the handrails on the intermediate floors first consider their dimensions from the
previous tutorial:

So I'm going to create on a separate file an handrail 1300 mm long and then import it in
the drawing of the stair and copy/move it as necessary.

Open a new file and draft the shape of a portal on it,

using DWire object for a change, 1300 mm long and
1000 mm high.

Then create two DN50 curves on the two top

vertexes. This is an alternative way to insert elbows:
select one vertex, select DN50 in the left list of the
dialog and press insert. If you don't specify a
different angle in the textbox, a 90° curve with a
default orientation will be placed over the vertex.
Repeat that for the other vertex.
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45° To orient the two elements

according the lines of the portal
you may use the spinTheBeam
command from FRAMETOOLS.

Actually in the code the function

spinTheBeam() has been
replaced with the more flexible
rotateTheTubeAx(), whose full features are
exploited in the relevant command and
dialog.

Otherwise you may have selected two

edges before pushing "Insert": in that case
the curve would has been inserted like
shown at side.

Whatever method you use, now the

task is to insert pipes on the circular
edge of the curves just created. This
is as simple as select at once each
edge and press "Insert" on the dialog
for "Insert a tube". As for curves, the
size of the pipe is automatically
choosen according to the size of the
curves selected in the viewport.
Default Height is 200 mm but you
can also insert a different value.
According to the edge orientation,
the tube may not be positioned as
you would expect; but in that case
you can select the tube and click on
"Reverse" button.

Extend the horizontal tube to the

edge of the opposite elbow and the
vertical tubes to the bottom vertex of
one of vertical edges.
Draw also the second orizontal line
and create the smaller DN32
horizontal tube. In this way you have
quickly completed the handrail
structure.
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Since we have some spare time we can also make the feet of
the handrail: first select all tubes we created and fuse them
with the appropriate command of Part workbench.
Then select one of the visible crowns of the tube to create a
sketch on it.

The sketch sholuld look as below. Purple circle are the edges
of the pipe projected on the sketch.

Extrude the sketch and the handrail is ready to be imported in the main project file.

I think I can skip all the operations of orienting the handrails according to a face,
translating and copying because they are already described in another tutorial.
It's worth to mention only the "Rotate through edge" command, used to create a
copy of the handrail at 90°.
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Intuitively, with this tool you are able to

rotate one object around the axis of one
circular edge of it. So, as shown in the
picture, select one of the circular edges
on the vertical tube of the handrail,
insert 90 for the angle of rotation and
select the "copy" radio button. If the
direction of rotation is not the one that
you expected you can use the "reverse"
button.

So we've done! Except that there is no grating on the floors, now our fire-fighting stair
looks a bit more safe.

The files of this tutorial are in the ./example folder and in next page is a brief description of
other commands available in PYPETOOLS workbench (up to now).
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Other commands:

Inserts a flange. The dialog is designed similar as for the insertion of pipes and
elbows. Table of flanges are customizable in ./tables folder as well.

Mates two circular edges of two separate objects.

This command is used to place a floating curve on the plane defined by two
edges or beams or pipes. It actually make the Z axis of the Shape of the elbow
parallel to the normal of the plane and translate its Placement in the intersection
point.

Extend two pipes or beams to their intersection point, if exists.

Notes:
• PYPETOOLS workbench is under heavy development, so the list of commands will
be updated time by time.
• My target is to save backward compatibility for all commands and objects but at this
time I can not assure that it will be possible in all cases.
• I made an effort to provide good documentation within the code. Thus, for command
descriptions you can browse the automatic Python documentation at the
CommandsPipe.py and pipeForms.py pages.